Unthinkable Games (LIttlemoon Investigations Book 3) Read online

  “It’s the floor. Someone is buried under that concrete. I know where one of the victims was laid to rest.”

  She stared up into his face in horror.

  The poor man.

  * * *

  When they returned to the house, they could hear banging going on downstairs. It was odd to Julian, since his sister and Beckett were only supposed to be looking for a bottle of wine.

  It made him panic, because they had better not be taking out walls. They were responsible to the family, and he didn’t want to lose their entire fee to repairs.

  Rushing downstairs, there was a fine cloud of dust floating in the air. As soon as he could focus through it, Julian wanted to be sick.

  “What the hell?”

  Claire looked up from her knees. She was covered in dust, and looked like someone dumped a bag of flour all over her. Beckett looked just as bad, only he was standing as far from Claire as humanly possible as he held the flashlights.

  “We found something,” she began, only to be cut off.

  “Christ, Claire! You were supposed to come down here and look for a bottle of wine. Why the hell are you chipping away at concrete in the floor?” Julian raged.

  Tori placed her hand on his arm, trying to calm him down. She could see the red flush covering him, and she really thought he was going to stroke out.

  “You can’t demo a place without calling me first! This isn’t a game! This is our livelihood!”

  She stared at him, shocked that he wasn’t as excited as she was.

  “Jesus,” he muttered. “You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?”

  “Jules, I have a very good reason to be breaking up this concrete slab,” she stated.

  “Yeah? What’s that?”

  Pointing in the hole, she explained. “We didn’t find the wine, but I think I found one of the six victims.”

  Once more, Beckett watched as she covered for him. He couldn’t believe that he’d found a woman who would do this for him not once, but twice.

  “WHAT?” Julian practically shouted.

  She pointed at the shallow hole. “I saw the skull peeking through the concrete,” she offered, which was a total lie, but that’s why she had to dig. If she didn’t, there was no way to protect Beckett. Now no one would know that the skull wasn’t where she said it was.

  Problem solved.

  Julian moved closer, fanning at the floating concrete particles, as he tried to get a better look.

  That’s when he saw it.

  In fact, he had to look twice, because he couldn’t believe his eyes.

  In the hole, there was part of a skeleton peeking through.

  “Holy shit!” he muttered.

  Tori stared down, looking at what was beginning to peek through the dirt and concrete. “Stop right there. We have to call the police. If you go any further, you risk damaging the bones. That’s going to make the local law a tad bit bitchy.”

  Claire put down the hammer and screwdriver that she absconded and went to place herself protectively in front of Beckett.

  Julian stared at them, piecing together what he believed had really happened. There was no way that his sister had found a skeleton in the dark, buried beneath some concrete. That was total bullshit, and his built in lie detector was going off.

  No, it was screaming.

  “Tori, call the sheriff. We have a crime scene.”

  No one spoke, but they all knew the truth.

  This had just gotten a hell of a lot messier.

  ~ Chapter Nine ~

  To say that the cops weren’t happy would be somewhat of an understatement. When they arrived to find two private investigators covered in evidence, the local law was not amused. The entire time Julian relayed the details of what had gone down, the sheriff said nothing.

  It occurred to him that this time, unlike the case in Kentucky where they ran into Beckett, the police weren’t going to be so accommodating.

  Already, Sheriff Penny Weinboro looked pissed.

  Julian couldn’t blame her.

  At this moment, he was a tad bit angry too. His two investigators should have called him before playing grave digger. Now, they had a bigger mess to clean up.

  Literally.

  All Julian could hope was that they wouldn’t be forced from the scene and off the case. They’d already invested time, money, and emotion into this case. If they had to leave, that wasn’t going to sit right with him.

  Julian could see by his wife’s face, the female sheriff was on her last nerve.

  “So, you’re telling me that you just happened to be in the wine cellar, found a body in the concrete, and then decided to unearth it?” she asked.

  Claire stood her ground, protecting the secret she was holding for Beckett. There was no way in hell she was telling the truth. While she didn’t advocate lying, she made a promise.

  That mattered.

  “Pretty much.”

  “You realize that normal people get scared when they find remains. They don’t dig them up.”

  “Maybe that’s their issue,” Claire stated.

  The woman moved closer. “I think you’re lying. You’re definitely hiding something, Ms. Littlemoon.”

  “Not really. I was curious.”

  She didn’t let up. In fact, Sheriff Weinboro pointed at the man beside the dust covered woman. “You just let her do this? You stated that you were once a sheriff. There’s no doubt in my mind that you should have known better. So, law to law, what really happened?”

  Julian saw Beckett tense.

  Tori saw the look of fear.

  But, before either could interject, Claire took over.

  “Listen, you’re the one reaching here, Sheriff. No offense, but this isn’t as elaborate as you think. We were here looking for a bottle of wine. I happened to get down on my knees to get a bottle, and saw something odd. I was in the military. I was trained to see things others might not. There isn’t any major conspiracy going on here, Mulder. Take a chill pill.”

  The woman got angry. “You’re lying.”

  Claire shrugged.

  “I want all of you out of here. It looks like this house is a crime scene, and you’re leaving it, for good.”

  Julian knew that she could do that, if they didn’t have an intervention. Giving his wife the look, she pulled out her phone.

  With one dial, she was contacting the Lamonts. It was all going to come down to the family saving their asses, and they all knew it.

  As they waited for the sheriff to start accusing them again, there was a soft voice from behind them.

  “Yes! Thank you, Doctor. I’m sorry to make you drive all the way out here, but it seems there are some remains.”

  They all glanced over at the ME as he strolled in. It was obvious what he had been doing before being called. He was wearing golf attire and looked irritated.

  It looked like the blame game was about to continue.

  “What do you have, Sheriff?” he asked, getting down to his knees to stare into the open hole.

  “Doctor Todd Hastings, these are the bunch of lunatics that found some bones. What can you do with our victim?”

  The man ran his one finger over them. “Well, there isn’t much,” he offered, looking up at the Littlemoons. “It looks like someone chipped away at them really good.”

  Claire knew her bother was going to kill her. She could feel the anger coming off him in waves. Yes, she’d gotten a little enthusiastic. Sue her. She wasn’t a freaking Fed.

  Immediately, Beckett’s hand went to her lower back. At least someone wasn’t going to lynch her over this.

  “What should we do now?” asked Sheriff Weinboro.

  The man stood, brushing off the knees of his golf pants. “I’ll have my people pull them out of the ground and bring them in, but we really can’t do anything. They’ve been in the ground a few decades from the look of it. You need yourself an anthropologist, not an ME.”

  He glanced over at the foursome.

&nb
sp; “You did one hell of a number on them.”

  Julian wanted to rage around at how big his team screwed up, but now it was time to salvage, not be pissed. “Whoever placed that body in the ground was the one who did a number on him, sir.”

  Tori hung up the phone. She’d let the owners know they needed to get there ASAP. Now it was a waiting game. They just had to hold out for as long as they could.

  “Yeah, you’re probably right on that one. If you find anything else here, how about you just call the Sheriff? It’s more her job than yours.”

  Julian glanced over at his sister. “I can assure you, Doctor, that if we come across any more remains, NO ONE will touch them.”

  Claire got the hint.

  The sheriff laughed. “Oh, you think? I’ve seen you on the news, Mr. Littlemoon. You’re a hack, and you’re not screwing up my scene. So, pack your shit and head on out. Your case, or whatever it is you call it, is officially over.”

  He wasn’t leaving.

  “Do you want me to make them leave?” asked Deputy Franklin Case. “I’ll escort them out right now.”

  When he went to touch Julian, Tori had his thumb in a submission hold that brought him to his knees. The man gasped in pain.

  “I don’t think so, Deputy. If you put your hands on us, I’m going to share the love.”

  The sheriff stared openmouthed at her deputy and the much smaller woman who had contained him.

  At that exact moment, two people rushed down the stairs with another deputy following in a panic.

  “Sheriff! I tried to stop them!” he blurted.

  Everyone looked over to see the Lamonts heading their way with a much younger man following.

  “At ease, Deputy Webb. I have this,” she stated. Glaring at Tori, she pointed ominously. “Let him up or I’m tossing you in jail for obstruction and assault on an officer.”

  “I’ll be out in less than twenty minutes if that happens. Plus, I’ll have the media at your door asking lots of questions about how your men roughhoused a pregnant woman. In fact, it’ll be your face on the news next.”

  This wasn’t Tori’s first day spinning a mess. That was one of the things she did quite often in the FBI. The woman before her was way out of her league.

  The sheriff wanted to scream as she ran her hands through her chopped mop of hair.

  Finally, she regained control. “Thank you, Doctor Hastings. I’ll call you later. Deputy Case, head out. Don’t put your hands on anyone in the room. I have no doubt that the Littlemoons will have your badge and mine. You know how PI’s are.”

  If it pissed Julian off, he gave no sign.

  “What the hell is going on here?” Chester Lamont asked, his voice booming in the space.

  “Did you hire these investigators?” Sheriff Penny Weinboro asked, her voice dripping with disdain for the four people in front of them.

  He crossed his arms. “Yes, I did.”

  “Well, they dug up your brother’s wine cellar and found a body.”

  He glanced down at the bones being placed in a bag. “Is that my brother”? he asked, suddenly feeling sick to his stomach. Immediately, his sister Mary Louise clung to him.

  “We don’t know,” stated the sheriff.

  The ME spoke up from the floor. “Not likely. That is unless your brother died quite a while ago.”

  Chester Lamont glared at the sheriff. “I don’t see what the problem is. This is private property, and in my brother’s absence, they have my permission to be here.”

  She opened her mouth to say something snotty, and instead, was cut off.

  “In three days, they found someone’s remains. When we came to you about my brother’s disappearance, you wrote it off as us being worked up. Now, we hire someone to do your damn job, and they’re doing it, so you’re pissed off. You’re going to have to suck it up. They’re staying.”

  The woman didn’t look happy.

  Come to think of it, no one in the room wearing a uniform looked amused at the situation. That didn’t bode well for Julian. They’d just stirred up the locals. This was going to make their lives that much harder.

  “If you’re done with us, Sheriff,” stated Julian, “we’re going to head upstairs.”

  She wasn’t, but what choice did she have? Sheriff Penny Weinboro couldn’t hold them, especially since the ME stated that the body was old. They were nosey pains in her ass, but nothing more.

  “Stick around,” she hissed, as her two deputies looked on. The man who had been manhandled by the little redhead appeared to be especially pissed off.

  “I hate private dicks.”

  Yeah, well, Penny didn’t love them at that moment either. “Let’s get this handled and then out of here. I want to do some research of my own.”

  Yeah, and all of it would be on the Littlemoons and their team. Before this was over, the four of them would wish they were back home and nowhere near Cloverdale.

  Upstairs, Julian had one of two options. He could lose it, and tear his sister and Beckett a new one, or he could take it in stride. In this case, it was going to be so much easier to let it go. Losing his temper wasn’t going to help. Had he been in his sister’s position, Julian couldn’t say that he wouldn’t have done the same exact thing.

  What wouldn’t he do to protect his wife?

  “Do you think my brother’s dead?” asked Mary Louise, as she still held onto her brother’s hand.

  No one wanted to lie to them, but they already had their answer.

  Tori took this one, since she was far more accustomed to dealing with death and families who were grieving. “We’re sorry, but we think he is. Now, we’d like to find him for you.”

  Mary Louise began softly crying.

  “We want you to,” stated Chester Lamont. “The sheriff wouldn’t give us the time of day when we filed the missing person report, but you did. We really need you to find who hurt our brother, and bring him home to us.”

  Julian held out his hand. “We’ll do that, sir. We’re sorry about the wine cellar. We won’t destroy anything else.”

  “It’s okay, Mr. Littlemoon. Just find Jeffery. It’s only a house. At this point, my sister and I need closure. We owe it to our baby brother to find the truth.”

  Julian watched the man bundle his sister up in his arms as he led her away. Before his own sister could open her mouth, he was facing her. “You’re not the boss here. I know you were trying to do something down there, but stop. We’re a team, and we function as one. If all the truth isn’t out, we’re doing this blind.”

  “We’ll fail,” Tori added.

  This conversation was aimed at Beckett. Neither Littlemoon doubted why Claire had lied. It wasn’t like her, and that worried them.

  “We understand,” Claire offered. “Can we get cleaned up? I’d like to get out of these clothes.”

  Julian nodded, letting them leave.

  “We have a problem,” he stated, once they were gone.

  Tori didn’t disagree. “He’s going to have to be honest with us. If he found that body, Jules, we can use him to find everything else.”

  He knew his wife was right.

  It looked like the man was about to have a ‘come to Jesus’ talk in the morning, whether he liked it or not.

  The team had to come first, and Julian Littlemoon was obligated to keep his family safe, one way or another.

  Heading up, Beckett lowered his voice. “You shouldn’t have lied to them for me. I feel bad.”

  Claire wasn’t having it. “I made a promise, Beck. I keep them.”

  It touched his soul that she didn’t betray his secret, even to her own brother and sister.

  “Thank you, Claire.”

  She looked up at his dusty face. “I meant what I said, Beckett. I wish you would trust me.”

  Despite what he swore he’d never do, Beckett was doing just that. The woman had wiggled her way past his defenses and was now taking root in his heart. What he wanted to do was hold her in his arms, taking her mouth wi
th his.

  “I can’t wait to shower,” she said, trying to focus on anything but the man so very close to her.

  “My shower sucks. It’s ice cold.” Although, at that moment, that might not be a bad thing. Beckett’s mind wasn’t on the body downstairs any longer. It was on the moments they’d shared pressed together in that secret passage.

  The way she felt.

  The way Claire smelled.

  God! It was maddening.

  “You can use mine,” she offered, trying not to picture him naked and in her room. If that happened, she wasn’t entirely sure that she could keep her hands off him. Her mind was wandering to the way he felt beneath his shirt. What wouldn’t she give to run her hands across the delicious planes of his body once more?

  “Are you sure?” he asked. What he really wanted to inquire about was if she’d be joining him.

  His body tightened.

  “Yes.”

  Claire led him to her door, holding his much larger hand in hers. She wanted to feel that press of flesh against flesh, but Beckett was still wearing the leather gloves.

  “You can go first. I’ll go to your room and get your clothes.”

  He lifted a brow, wanting to know if she was bringing all his things there. Was he moving in?

  Bunking there?

  He could only hope.

  “So you don’t have to touch anything,” she added, praying she wasn’t flushing with heat.

  Beckett simply nodded, loving the way she licked nervously at her lips. Claire, his magnificently confident woman, was nervous as hell.

  He was glad that he wasn’t alone.

  “I’ll be right out,” he offered, knowing that he needed to escape or he was going to pounce. He was desperate to have her after spending the last five years locked in celibacy.

  Claire called to something deep within him.

  And he wanted to feel.

  When the bathroom door closed, she made a break for it. Racing to his room, she pulled out his suitcase and began rummaging through it. It was hard not to notice that everything smelled so masculine and amazing. Claire wanted to bury her face in his clothes, breathing in his scent.